Dr. Timothy Leary, got Marihuana Tax Act ruled unconstitutional

I don’t have much to add to the Tim tributes, except this one note. Looking past the Black Irish flash and dash of his media career, what was Tim Leary’s most important contribution? Obviously the popularization of LSD. But in marijuana history he will forever be remembered as the man who brought down the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

As reported in my magazine, The Marijuana Review (Vol. 1, #3, June 1969), Tim had been stopped at the Tex-Mex border around Christmas 1965 while trying to enter Mexico for a vacation with his daughter and son. Turned back by Mexican officials, Leary and his kids were searched by US Customs as they “re-entered” the US, and a tiny amount of pot was found in daughter Susan’s panties. Tim took responsibiliity for it, and was charged with possession and tax evasion under the old 1937 law. The Marihuana Tax Act had not banned marijuana outright, but required those who possessed or sold it to register and to pay a $100 an ounce “transfer tax” in order to receive a “tax stamp.” This was an enormous sum in the 1930’s– and even in the 1960s– and not only effectively prohibited marijuana but also destroyed the hemp industry in this country.

As the tax evasion case wound its way up the judicial system, Tim’s lawyers argued double jeopardy and the 5th Amendment: if Tim had paid the transfer tax to Federal authorities, it would have incriminated him under Texas state law prohibiting the possession of marijuana. Finally, on May 19, 1969– Malcolm X’s birthday and Ho Chi Minh’s birthday– the US Supreme Court ruled in Leary’s favor. The 1937 Tax Act was struck down as unconstitutional.

President Nixon retaliated with the September 1969 “Operation Intercept,” which closed the border for two weeks while every vehicle was searched for drugs– which led to the explosion of the California homegrown marijuana industry and to aircraft widely being used to smuggle pot instead of cars.

The Leary decision also gave Nixon and his henchmen the opportunity to re-write the Federal drug laws. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 set up four schedules of drugs and gave the Attorney General (rather than scientists or doctors) the right to choose which schedule a drug would be classified under. Marijuana was put in Schedule 1, with no medical uses and a large potential for abuse. Both of these LIES were cemented into law by Nixon and his crooked cronies, and have bedevilled the marijuana movement to this day.

So the outcome of Tim Leary’s case, which should have been cause for celebration, led to the establishment of the LIES IN LAWS that prevent sick people from obtaining their medicine, that prevent honest farmers from growing one of the world’s most useful crops, and that prevent all Americans from enjoying one of the most beneficial substances ever discovered by the human race. Don’t blame Tim for Nixon’s malfeasance.

It’s 10 years since the pied piper of pharmaceuticals died. Where did all the attention go?

By Robert Greenfield

ROBERT GREENFIELD is the author of “Timothy Leary: A Biography,” to be published in June by Harcourt Books.

May 29, 2006

Timothy Leary’s dead No, no, no, no, he’s outside, looking in

— “Legend of a Mind,” the Moody Blues*

ALTHOUGH MAY 31 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Timothy Leary, there will be no gathering of the tribes anywhere to commemorate the event. Unlike Jerry Garcia, whose posthumous profile remains so high that the toilet from his home in Marin County was recently stolen after it was auctioned off for charity, Leary’s name has not been enshrined on a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream carton.

For someone who never met an interviewer (or a drug) he did not like, this constitutes a sad state of affairs indeed. Far more than most of his psychedelic cohorts, Leary understood marketing. He came up with “turn on, tune in, drop out,” the catchy mantra he’s remembered by (when he’s remembered at all), only after consulting with media guru Marshall McLuhan.

Even by 1960s’ standards, Leary’s life was outsized. Booted out of West Point for violating the honor code, he earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from UC Berkeley, only to suffer a nervous breakdown after his wife committed suicide on his 35th birthday because he was having an affair with another woman.

After ingesting magic mushrooms in Mexico, Leary, by then an instructor at Harvard, began turning on the leading writers, artists and intellectuals of the day. (The university dismissed him in 1963.) When LSD became the drug of choice for the youth of America, he skyrocketed to fame as a genial and beneficent pharmaceutical pied piper.

While living in a sprawling mansion in Millbrook, N.Y., Leary met and married high-fashion model Nena von Schlebrugge (now the wife of Tibet scholar Robert Thurman and the mother of actress Uma Thurman), only to separate from her during their honeymoon in the Himalayas. Moving to Orange County in 1968, Leary threw his lot in with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a band of spiritual surfers turned drug dealers. He announced his candidacy for governor of California, and he flew off to Montreal to join John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their “bed-in” for peace.

After being sent to the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo for possession of marijuana, Leary escaped with the help of the radical Weather Underground and fled to Algeria, where he was placed under house arrest by fellow exile and Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver. Leary then found temporary sanctuary in Switzerland, only to be busted while trying to enter Afghanistan. Flown back to the United States under armed guard, he was locked up in Folsom State Prison, where his neighbor was Charles Manson. In exchange for his freedom, Leary became an FBI informant and betrayed his former friends and associates.

In 1976, Leary moved to Los Angeles and, among other things, began working as a “stand-up philosopher,” performing in clubs on Sunset Boulevard and hanging out with A-list celebrities such as Helmut Newton, Susan Sarandon and Johnny Depp (then keeping company with Leary’s goddaughter, Wynona Ryder).

Leary became an early computer enthusiast, engaged in a series of well-publicized “debates” with convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy and appeared on stage at Lollapalooza. When Leary learned he was suffering from incurable prostate cancer, he went public with his dying, threatening at one point to commit suicide online. Leary’s ashes were shot into space on the same rocket that carried the mortal remains of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”

Although many of his books remain in print, it was his outrageous conduct rather than his work that shaped the zeitgeist. Still, Leary should not be remembered only for his unflagging advocacy of better living through chemistry. By the end of his life, his real message was no longer turn on, tune in, drop out, but rather think for yourself, question authority, learn how to operate your own brain.

At a time when most people have long since given up believing that consciousness expansion can save the world, a small, unruly celebration would seem to be in order to honor Timothy Leary. If nothing else, he was a man who always marched to the beat of his own drum, whether or not anyone else was actually following along behind.

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Timothy Leary

Updated October 2002 in RED

This guy was as trippy as they get. A very unusual man, down to the very last minute of his life, when he wanted to broadcast his death over the internet, and have his ashes blasted out into space.

I had the opportunity to meet him once, when I was working in a theater in Detroit. He was doing a tour as a “stand up philosopher.” Before they booked him, my bosses asked me if I would pay to see him. Not having the vaguest idea who he was (this was 1980, and I was only 17), I bluffed it because he was mentioned in Hair, and I’d heard of him. Anyway, they booked it, and only about a dozen people even showed up.

Before the show, I was taking tickets at the box office, and a gentleman came in. I asked for his ticket, and was swiftly kicked by a co-worker, who hissed, “That’s Hiiiiiiiim!” Whoops. Anyway, he was nice, and I showed him to the dressing room. I also will add that he requested David Bowie music to be playing at the time. I don’t know why he didn’t have his own, but I had to borrow my sisters Ziggy Stardust tape, and bring it in with me that day.

I sat in the back of the theatre while he had a slide show of certain drugs he and his wife would take on occasion. Personally, I thought he was out of his mind. But then this guy who was in the audience, approached the stage. Leary was nervous – as the guy looked nuts. Big overcoat, long hair, sunglasses and walking unsteadily. He handed Leary a gift. When Leary questioned what it was, he replied, “A bottle with a hole blown in the side.” Leary was amused, and accepted it graciously.

After the show, I went backstage, and being the ever fame hag I am, I asked him to sign my poster for the event, which he did. The end. That’s my Timothy Leary story. I should add that Leary’s lecture made the front pages of the local papers the next day. Too bad he couldn’t get the publicity beforehand.

Leary lived in Benedict Canyon, in a modest ranch style home. Wanna see his mailbox? Course you do. In 1995, he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. I was speaking to Rocky Horror actor Barry Bostwick a couple of weeks ago. As I do. He had prostate cancer, and was cured. However, he still goes in for checkups all the time, and could not emphasize enough – the importance of getting checked. Especially men in their early 40’s. So take it from Brad, do it guys.

Timothy’s god daughter was shoplifter Winona Ryder. She supposedly moved in with him a couple of weeks before he died. It is said that she loved him deeply, and the two were very close.

On May 31, 1996 – Leary was in bed, and he suddenly sat up and asked, “Why not? Why not? Why not? It was 12:44am, and the 75 year old died. About 20 friends, his stepson Zach, and his ex-wife Rosemary Woodruff Leary were with him. Timothy made sure that the entire event was videotaped.

Upon hearing of his death, known jerk Art Linkletter said, “You could only call it ‘what goes around, comes around.’ Yeah, Leary really got what was coming to him. He celebrated life, lived to a healthy age, and was supposedly a great guy to hang around with. Art however, is a bitter twisted man, who wants to dictate how the world should behave. I’m really sorry his daughter jumped out the window – but if she didn’t, Divine might never have become the fab actor he was. (one of Divine’s first films for John Waters was The Diane Linkletter Story.) I hate Art Linkletter.

Two days before Timothy died, he was approved for his final trip. A portion of his ashes would be shot into space, orbit the earth, then burn up upon reentry of the earths atmosphere. Findadeath.com friend Roger Sinclair provided me with this exclusive photograph of Leary’s tiny urn. I don’t know what happened to the rest of him. The space thing cost him $4,800 – and you too can have the same fun – if you go here.

Trivia: Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had his ashes go out on the same flight.

Trivia: How about those noisy neighbors?! Sharon Tate lived just above the cul de sac (cul means ass in Italian – and cul de sac means ass end of the street)

Trivia: Molly Ringwald hates Winona Ryder. She claims Winona robbed her of her career. Personally, when I met Molly, I thought she was a skank.

Added March 6 2002: Rosemary Woodruff Leary, third wife of counterculture icon Timothy Leary, died Thursday February 7, 2002 of congestive heart failure. She was 66.

She met Timothy Leary at an art exhibition opening in New York City in 1965. She was working as a model at the time.

The couple married in 1967, and were arrested repeatedly for marijuana possession.

Timothy Leary was sent to a state prison in San Luis Obispo County in 1970, but his wife and others helped him escape. The two fled the country to Algeria, then to Switzerland.

They separated in 1971, and two years later Timothy Leary was caught trying to enter Afghanistan and was returned to the United States. He was released from prison in 1976, the year the two divorced.

Rosemary Leary stayed underground, living in Afghanistan, Sicily and Central and South America. She sneaked back into the United States in 1980 and lived under the name Sarah Woodruff.

In 1993, she had her record cleared of fugitive charges.

She wrote free-lance articles and managed the trust that administered her ex-husband’s copyrights and archives. She also lectured college students about the psychedelic era.

Timothy Leary died in 1996. Rosemary Leary was working on a final draft of her memoirs when she died.

MORE October 2002 from Findadeath.com friend John Stamey: I didn’t see this info anywhere on your Leary page, but he was busted for drugs by an assistant DA named G. Gordon Liddy. Apparently they became “friendly” and toured together for a while having debates about drugs and politics. Also, one of Leary’s drug cases was where the Supreme Court declared the Marijuana Tax law unconstitutional. Leary’s case was a Federal beef because he was busted for failing to pay the $100 an ounce tax on weed. This tax was enacted in the 1930s; before that dope was largely ignored and generally legal. Legend has it Abraham Lincoln smoked hash for headaches, which may have prompted his (apocryphal) comment “I freed the WHAT?” the day after he signed the Emancipation Proclaimation.

Until the Supreme Court held Leary’s position on the Marijuana Tax correct – that it amounted to self-incrimination and was a violation of the 5th Amendment – pharmacies had to display a current Marijuana Tax certificate. It’s also been claimed that Hearst and DuPont both wanted to eradicate hemp cultivation in the US so the Hearst interests in wood-pulp paper and DuPont’s artifical fabrics would be more profitable. The Declaration of Independence is printed on hemp paper and “canvas” is a corruption of the word “cannabis”.

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Erowid Character Vaults

Timothy Leary

Oct 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996

Summary

Timothy Francis Leary was born is Springfield, Massachusetts in 1920. He attended West Point in the early ’40s (where he didn’t exactly fit in) and then served in the military during WWII. He earned his PhD in psychology from U.C. Berkeley and taught there briefly but moved to Harvard after his first wife’s death. He first took psilocybin mushrooms in 1960 during a trip to Mexico. When he returned to Harvard he began the Harvard Psilocybin Project, studying the effects of psilocybin on humans. As part of the project he, along with Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner, gave psilocybin to a series of volunteers including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Arthur Koestler, among others.

In 1962 Leary was introduced to LSD for the first time by Michael Hollingshead. He had what he later described as “the most shattering experience of his life”. Leary became a spokesman for LSD and the psychedelic movement, encouraging people to “tune in, turn on, and drop out”. In 1963, he and Richard Alpert were fired from their positions at Harvard after which they both lived at Millbrook for a time. At Milbrook they continued to work with psychedelics both therapeutically and recreationally…with the occasional help of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Abbie Hoffman and Aldous Huxley.

In 1965, while crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, Leary’s daughter was caught with marijuana. Leary took responsibility, was convicted of marijuana possession under the Marijuana Tax Act and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He appealed the case based on the argument that the Marijuana Tax Act required self-incrimination in order to comply with it, and therefore was unconstitutional. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with him, declaring the Marijuana Tax Act unconstitutional and overturning his conviction.

In 1970, Leary was convicted once again of marijuana possession and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He escaped from the minimum security prison and fled with his wife to Algeria and then Switzerland. In 1973 he was arrested by DEA agents in Afghanistan and returned to prison in California. He served three years before being parolled 1976.

Leary became interested in virtual reality and cyberculture and spent the last twenty years of his life writing and lecturing. He worked with a group of friends to document his own process of dying from prostate cancer. He died quietly in his own bed, surrounded by friends, and on Feb 9 1997, a portion of Leary’s cremated remains were launched into space.

Conceived on 17 January 1920, the second day of Prohibition, at West Point, New York. Born Timothy Francis Leary on 22 October, 1920 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Attended the United States Military Academy at West Point in the early 1940s.

Awoken early on a Sunday morning, a hung over Cadet Leary retorted that he was “dying and would never be able to make reveille again in his whole life.” As a result, the cadet Honor Committee charged Leary with honor violation and “silenced” him, forbidding other cadets from speaking with Leary.

During this period of introspection, Leary was taken in by the first African-American cadets, also silenced due to military racism. He began to study philosophy, and wrote his first book, based on Arthur Schopenhauer.

Eventually, Leary was urged to resign from the Academy. Thus begins his life-long emphasis as an author to undermine the dominant white-male structures of authority.

Following college and military service during WWII, Leary taught in Psychology at UC Berkeley. Then, after his first wife’s suicide, moved to teach at Harvard.

His early work in psychology included interpreting the self-dynamic personality models of Henry Stack Sullivan, as discussed in Maps of the Mind by Charles Hampden-Turner. Shades of Sullivan’s work influenced Leary’s later major theoretical work known as the Eight Circuit Model regarding the evolution of consciousness (see Info-Psychology). This theory has been interpreted and embellished by Robert Anton Wilson, Antero Alli and others.

First introduced to hallucinogens during a research trip to study curandera, traditional Latin American healing techniques, following in the footsteps of R. Gordon Wasson. After taking psilocybin mushrooms in Mexico in 1960, Leary returns to Harvard and starts the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Gives mushrooms to Arthur Koestler, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, amongst others and dutifully records their impressions. Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner join the project.

Takes LSD for the first time in 1962. Writes: “It was the most shattering experience of my life.”

Fundamental in shaping and initiating the Psychedelic Movement. Throughout the 60’s, Leary is one of the primary Subculture figures, advocating the philosophy expressed in the slogan: “Tune in, Turn on and Drop out.” Spends most of the 70’s in jail for minor drug charges or in exile as a political dissident.

For the last decade or so of his life, Leary writes and lectures enthusiastically in support of the emerging cyberculture centered around the possibilities of computers and virtual reality.

Died on 31 May 1996 at his home in Beverly Hills, California wearing a t-shirt that read: “If you only have one wish, make it BIG.” His last words are reported to have been: “Why? Why not? WHY NOT? Why not? Why not? Why not?” and later, “Beautiful.”

On 9 February 1997, a portion of Leary’s cremated remains were launched into space.

http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/timothy_leary.html

Timothy Francis Leary, the son of a dentist, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on 22nd October, 1920. He attended West Point Military Academy but was forced to leave after being accused of smuggling alcohol onto the campus.

Leary eventually obtained a degree in psychology at the University of Alabama in 1943. He then moved to the University of California where he received a Ph.D. in 1950. Leary worked as an assistant professor at Berkeley (1950-55), director of research at the Kaiser Foundation (1955-58) before becoming a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University in 1959.

During a visit to Mexico Leary tried psilocybin mushrooms. As a result of this experience Leary and a colleague, Richard Alpert, began research into the effects of psilocybin and LSD on individuals. Leary argued that LSD, if used correctly, could alter personality in beneficial ways. Leary’s research participants reported that while under the influence of LSD they had profound mystical and spiritual experiences. Leary and Alpert argued that LSD could be used to reform convicted criminals.

Leary’s ideas received considerable publicity and in 1962 he was contacted by Mary Pinchot Meyer. Leary supplied her with LSD who used it with her lover, President John F. Kennedy. Leary later claimed that Meyer helped influence Kennedy’s views on nuclear disarmament and rapprochement with Cuba. Kennedy aide, Meyer Feldman, claimed in an interview with Nina Burleigh that the president might have discussed substantial issues with Meyer: “I think he might have thought more of her than some of the other women and discussed things that were on his mind, not just social gossip.”

In 1963 Leary and Alpert were dismissed from Harvard University after complaints from the parents of students involved in experimenting with LSD. The two men moved to New York and continued their research at a large mansion called Millbrook. On several occasions Millbrook was raided by FBI agents. This included one raid led by G. Gordon Liddy.

According to his biography, Flashbacks, Timothy Leary claims that Mary Pinchot Meyer phoned him the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated: “They couldn’t control him any more. He was changing too fast. He was learning too much… They’ll cover everything up. I gotta come see you. I’m scared. I’m afraid.”

In the summer of 1964 Meyer told friends that she believed someone had been inside her house while she was away. On another occasion she told Elizabeth Eisenstein that “she thought she had seen somebody leaving as she walked in”. Meyer reported these incidents to the police. Eisenstein said Meyer was clearly frightened by these incidents.

On 12th October, 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer was shot dead as she walked along the Chesapeake and Ohio towpath in Georgetown. Meyer appeared to have been killed by a professional hitman. The first bullet was fired at the back of the head. She did not die straight away. A second shot was fired into the heart. The evidence suggests that in both cases, the gun was virtually touching Meyer’s body when it was fired.

Soon afterwards Raymond Crump, a black man, was charged with Meyer’s murder. Police tests were unable to show that Crump had fired the .38 caliber Smith and Wesson gun. There were no trace of nitrates on his hands or clothes. Despite an extensive search of the area no gun could be found. This included a two day search of the tow path by 40 police officers. On 29th July, 1965, Crump was acquitted of murdering Meyer. The case remains unsolved.

In 1965 Leary’s daughter was arrested carrying marijuana while crossing the Mexican border. Leary took responsibility for his daughter having the drug and he was later convicted of possession under the Marijuana Tax Act and was sentenced to 30 years in jail. In 1969 the Marijuana Tax was declared unconstitutional and Leary’s conviction was quashed.

The following year Leary was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. Found guilty, he was sentenced to prison. However, with the help of the Weathermen, he escaped from prison. Leary and his wife to move to Algeria where he spent time with Black Panther leader, Eldridge Cleaver. Later the couple went to live in Switzerland.

Richard Nixon described Leary as the “most dangerous man in America” and ordered G. Gordon Liddy to destroy him. In 1974 he was illegally kidnapped by Interpol agents in Kabul and transported to the United States. (At the time Afghanistan had no extradition treaty with the United States.) Leary was eventually released from prison in April, 1976.

Books by Leary include The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (1957), The Psychedelic Experience (1964), The Politics of Ecstasy (1965), Start Your Own Religion (1967), High Priest (1968), Confessions of a Hope Fiend (1973), Flashbacks (1983), Info-Psychology (1987), Change Your Brain (1988), Game of Life (1989) and Intelligence Agents (1996).

Timothy Francis Leary died of prostate cancer on 31st May, 1996. His death was videotaped and appeared in the movie, Timothy Leary’s Dead.

I knew the moment Dr. Timothy Leary had taken his last breath. John, the night hospice nurse, beckoned with his eyes for me to stand by Timothy’s bed, and put my fingers on his neck just as his pulse faded and disappeared. My heart filled. The room illuminated. His bedroom was lit with candles and little Christmas lights, his head on a pillow cover painted with a picture of outer space and an astronaut, he was covered in a velvety red blanket. He was wearing an oversized T-shirt that read “If you only have one wish, make it BIG,” with BIG in huge red letters. None of us were aware of the camera rolling by his friends from Retnalogic, who organized his website to document his death. His stepson Zach, placed a pink rose petal in his open mouth after most left the room. Each of us spent a moment by his side to give our goodbyes, thanks and love. Everyone there represented every feeling one could have about death and dying, passing through and moving on. Some smiled, some meditated in silence, some cried. The passing of Timothy Leary, that particular soul, that part of all of us, was, is, a very special passing. His reminders so profound.

The room was silent all day except that everyone had agreed to be thinking, “I love you Timothy. It is ok to go now.” John had suggested this would help him release himself, and that touching him or talking would bring him back into his body, at a time when it was clear to all that he was ready to leave. At one point during the day, however, he sat straight up in his bed and said, “Why? Why not? WHY NOT? Why not? Why not? Why not?” about twenty times with different inflections, as he looked into the eyes of each person in the room. At another point, he said the word, “Beautiful,” as though he was describing something he was seeing. Everyone who spent time with Timothy has hir story. Most of us will never be the same after having met him. I will never be the same. This is my tribute to Timothy. It’s also a way for me to bring forward and share awarenesses he raised.

One afternoon, his assistant, Vicki Marshal, and I asked him what he wanted to do with his body. He said that he wanted to be cremated, and that he wanted me to get his ashes into space. I’ve accepted this mission, with the joy he expressed as he ordered it. An essence of Timothy’s ashes will be launched on board the Pegasus rocket, organized by the first entrepreneurial space burial company in Houston, Texas, Celestis, Inc., in late September or in October, from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (The entire fee for space burial is only $4800.) Timothy was thrilled to hear that he will be launched along with other space pioneers including Gene Rodenberry, creator of “Star Trek,” Dr. Gerard O’Neill, author of “The High Frontier” and physist at Princeton University who designed fabulous space stations and who educated us about the mass driver which can mine the moon and asteroids, and Todd Hauley, of the International Space University.

When he saw the three minute Celestis video, he jumped up and down in his wheelchair, ecstatic as he watched the burst of light caused by the burn-up of the rocket stage to which he’ll be attached when it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere. He was, also, glad to learn he wouldn’t become space debris. When he looked so relieved as he said, “Finally, I’ll be a space pioneer, and everyone will know: That will be me. I will be the light,” I knew this was the very moment when he decided to take the step, to release himself from his body.

What was once a dynamic and voluptious body housing this magnificent brain and spirit, was now thin, bruised and frail, with patches to cover holes in his legs from sores that wouldn’t heal, housing the same incredible brain and spirit. A unique nurse, Cathy, a former dominatrix, was invited to visit because it was thought by his stepson and friends, for a fleeting minute or two, that he might enjoy having pretty nurses with short uniforms and garter belts holding his medicine, or wearing bikini’s or anything he wanted, as they would care for him and talk him into behaving and taking his medicine, etc., and he had fired other nurses during the past few days. After she shaved him, he drove up next to me his wheelchair and asked for a mirror. He stared for a several minutes, contemplating, then said sadly and with a touch of astonishment, “This isn’t me. I don’t know this face.” I held my heart and wanted to cry. He did cry, that night, in my arms.

His wonderful friends came to visit, though he had begun to retreat more and more, after Robert Anton Wilson and his wife, Arlin, visited, and he had to ask me who they were. He forgot. I told him not to worry, as he remembered me, so he wasn’t so far out there.

A few days before he passed, I asked him, “Who are we?” He said, “We are bearers of the light – light bearers. “What is our purpose?” I asked. “We can shine it to illuminate others.”

Two mornings before, as he awakened and sat on the side of his bed, his eyes winked as they twinkled when he smiled and sang a whisper, “I’ve had a sneak preview.”

The morning before, the hospice nurse, Doris Angel, helped him into his electric wheelchair so she could freshen his bed. He proceeded to wheel himself outside to visit his year, the palm trees he described as tall basketball players, the flowers, his dog and cat. Then, he got back into bed, and began his slow breathing process.

Years ago, Timothy had listed me in the Genetic Hall of Fame in his book, the Intelligence Agents, with people he called “evolutionary agents” who were working for human evolution into space. I’ll never forget his Leary SMILE, which he said stands for SM, Space Migration, the I is squared and stands for Intelligence Increase, and the LE stands for Life Exstension.

I asked, “why have you asked me to stay with you during the last weeks before you die?” He told me he called because I was the only person he could think of who doesn’t listen to anything he says, and he thought he would need a friend like that as he got closer. I believe he was right. He was always a little grumpy, and this trait amplified as the pain got worse and he became more impatient and frustrated. I paid no attention when he’d ask me to leave, as I knew it was because he was feeling a sense of losing his dignity, and he thanked me every night as I’d lay down next to him to sleep. He had such a strong, happy-go-lucky personality in front of everyone, and that was mostly how he felt. He was truly looking forward to the death experience. But the pain was extraordinary, and he did the best he could to eleviate it and to stay conscious. The nights were long, lonely, and sometimes weird, different from anything he had ever experienced, or I had ever experienced. Words cannot describe how lucky I was to have been there for, and with him, during those dark hours.

AT 75, Dr. Timothy Leary consciously passed on with a smile on his face, at 12:44 A.M., May 31, 1996. Or, is he “on the outside looking in?” as the Moody Blues sing.

The day before he died, he handed me a balloon, and said, “This is my last balloon. The last one I’ll ever do.” He was breathing nitrous oxide to help eleviate the pain of his cancer. He knew this was the time for him to pass on, and literally chose the next day to begin the process.

I feel as though I was there so I could share his messages with you. Timothy touched so many millions of people. He received 35,000 people on his web site, and nearly 9,000 emails around this time. Some people have tried to discredit Timothy, or believe he represented or did something bad, but those people didn’t know him, or listen to what he was saying. They have closed minds, live in fear of truth, and likely have never experimented with raising their consciousness or becoming aware of their spirituality. He opened our minds, freed our nervous systems of their normal patterns and structures, and expanded our consciousness to receive new, evolutionary perspectives and the possibilities of creating realities and reality shifts. He reminded us that we are free, we are love, we are one, and we shall speak and live our truth. His final teaching was that death is a joyous, wonderful experience, another phase of life’s journey.

He allowed me to tape his last interview, and he said, “My life work has been to empower the individual. To free herself or himself. To grow and be more free. Today we move into the next place … use light to enjoy space for individuals. Ride the light into space with your friends! Light is the language of the sun and the stars where we will meet again.”

http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Ship/rosin.html

Timothy Francis Leary, the son of a dentist, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on 22nd October, 1920. He attended West Point Military Academy but was forced to leave after being accused of smuggling alcohol onto the campus.

Leary eventually obtained a degree in psychology at the University of Alabama in 1943. He then moved to the University of California where he received a Ph.D. in 1950. Leary worked as an assistant professor at Berkeley (1950-55), director of research at the Kaiser Foundation (1955-58) before becoming a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University in 1959.

During a visit to Mexico Leary tried psilocybin mushrooms. As a result of this experience Leary and a colleague, Richard Alpert, began research into the effects of psilocybin and LSD on individuals. Leary argued that LSD, if used correctly, could alter personality in beneficial ways. Leary’s research participants reported that while under the influence of LSD they had profound mystical and spiritual experiences. Leary and Alpert argued that LSD could be used to reform convicted criminals.

Leary’s ideas received considerable publicity and in 1962 he was contacted by Mary Pinchot Meyer. Leary supplied her with LSD who used it with her lover, President John F. Kennedy. Leary later claimed that Meyer helped influence Kennedy’s views on nuclear disarmament and rapprochement with Cuba. Kennedy aide, Meyer Feldman, claimed in an interview with Nina Burleigh that the president might have discussed substantial issues with Meyer: “I think he might have thought more of her than some of the other women and discussed things that were on his mind, not just social gossip.”

In 1963 Leary and Alpert were dismissed from Harvard University after complaints from the parents of students involved in experimenting with LSD. The two men moved to New York and continued their research at a large mansion called Millbrook. On several occasions Millbrook was raided by FBI agents. This included one raid led by G. Gordon Liddy.

According to his biography, Flashbacks, Timothy Leary claims that Mary Pinchot Meyer phoned him the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated: “They couldn’t control him any more. He was changing too fast. He was learning too much… They’ll cover everything up. I gotta come see you. I’m scared. I’m afraid.”

In the summer of 1964 Meyer told friends that she believed someone had been inside her house while she was away. On another occasion she told Elizabeth Eisenstein that “she thought she had seen somebody leaving as she walked in”. Meyer reported these incidents to the police. Eisenstein said Meyer was clearly frightened by these incidents.

On 12th October, 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer was shot dead as she walked along the Chesapeake and Ohio towpath in Georgetown. Meyer appeared to have been killed by a professional hitman. The first bullet was fired at the back of the head. She did not die straight away. A second shot was fired into the heart. The evidence suggests that in both cases, the gun was virtually touching Meyer’s body when it was fired.

Soon afterwards Raymond Crump, a black man, was charged with Meyer’s murder. Police tests were unable to show that Crump had fired the .38 caliber Smith and Wesson gun. There were no trace of nitrates on his hands or clothes. Despite an extensive search of the area no gun could be found. This included a two day search of the tow path by 40 police officers. On 29th July, 1965, Crump was acquitted of murdering Meyer. The case remains unsolved.

In 1965 Leary’s daughter was arrested carrying marijuana while crossing the Mexican border. Leary took responsibility for his daughter having the drug and he was later convicted of possession under the Marijuana Tax Act and was sentenced to 30 years in jail. In 1969 the Marijuana Tax was declared unconstitutional and Leary’s conviction was quashed.

The following year Leary was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. Found guilty, he was sentenced to prison. However, with the help of the Weathermen, he escaped from prison. Leary and his wife to move to Algeria where he spent time with Black Panther leader, Eldridge Cleaver. Later the couple went to live in Switzerland.

Richard Nixon described Leary as the “most dangerous man in America” and ordered G. Gordon Liddy to destroy him. In 1974 he was illegally kidnapped by Interpol agents in Kabul and transported to the United States. (At the time Afghanistan had no extradition treaty with the United States.) Leary was eventually released from prison in April, 1976.

Books by Leary include The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (1957), The Psychedelic Experience (1964), The Politics of Ecstasy (1965), Start Your Own Religion (1967), High Priest (1968), Confessions of a Hope Fiend (1973), Flashbacks (1983), Info-Psychology (1987), Change Your Brain (1988), Game of Life (1989) and Intelligence Agents (1996).

Timothy Francis Leary died of prostate cancer on 31st May, 1996. His death was videotaped and appeared in the movie, Timothy Leary’s Dead.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKlearyT.htm

Document Gallery

The following documents were obtained by the authors in researching Acid Dreams: the CIA, LSD, and the Sixities Rebellion.

Also included are a number of once-classified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Though there is much that government censors have seen fit to keep secret even today, tantalizing glimpses of CIA-sponsored research into drugs are found amid the blacked-out names.